Melbourne-based crime author Robin Bowles launched the search, armed with the advice of the psychics, near Barrow Creek in central Australia, where Mr Falconio went missing two years ago.

Workers directed by the clairvoyants used digging equipment to hunt for the remains north of the town of Alice Springs.

But two days of digging failed to turn up anything.

Mr Falconio, from Hepworth, is believed to have been killed after he and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were flagged down by a gunman as they drove along the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory on the night of July 14, 2001.

Joanne managed to escape and report the attack to police, sparking one of the biggest manhunts in Australian history.

The body of Mr Falconio, who was 28, has never been found.

Police last year said DNA evidence taken from blood on Joanne Lees's clothing had linked the murder to Bradley John Murdoch, 44, who is in a South Australian jail on other charges.

Robin Bowles, who is writing a book on his disappearance, said she funded the expedition herself, after the three clairvoyants each separately identified a site near a dry river bed near Barrow Creek as the place where Falconio's body was to be found.

Police had already excavated the site, but ruled it out, she said.

Ms Bowles said: "It's been a fruitless search but I don't think it's been a waste of time."

Aborigines in the area still believe the body is there and would likely return to continue digging for his body, she said.

"So many of the Aboriginal community feel he's buried there," she said.

"It's their land. They feel very strongly about finding his body and sending him back to his homeland."

Bradley John Murdoch, the man charged with murdering Mr Falconio, is awaiting trial on unrelated rape and abduction charges. He is expected to be tried for Mr Falconio's murder after his rape trial, for which no date has been set.

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